Admiral Sir John (‘”The Burning Bush”‘) Bush GCB DSC and two bars

ADMIRAL SIR JOHN BUSH

 Admiral Sir John Bush  GCB  DSC and two bars ,

wartime destroyer captain and Commander in Chief,

Western Fleet 1967-70, died on 10 May aged 98. 

He was born on November 1st, 1914.

  Known by his subordinates  as “The Burning Bush” , Admiral Sir John Fitzroy Duyland Bush illustrated the rule that nicknames, however superficially apposite, do not endure unless they are earned.  As Vice Chief of the Naval Staff  and Commander in Chief, Western Fleet during the late 1960’s he was renowned for driving energy and his forcefully expressed impatience with obstacles to progress and with failures to perform to the high standards that he required.

            Entering the navy in 1933 at the age of nineteen from Clifton College, he was, as a Lieutenant,  second-in-command of the powerful Tribal class destroyer Nubian  at the outbreak of the Second World War.  He witnessed a number of the important actions of the Mediterranean campaign including the  battle of  Cape Matapan . He was awarded his first DSC in August 1941 for coolness, skill and enterprise during a confused high-speed night action between Sicily and Tripoli when a force of four British destroyers annihilated an Italian convoy of five merchant ships and three destroyers for the loss of  HMS Mohawk.  His outstanding gallantry and fortitude during the battle of Crete earned him a second DSC.  The Mediterranean fleet had paid a heavy price in the battle to defend Crete against a German invasion which was, for them,  a severe test of the capabilities of parachute troops despite being well  supported by an active and efficient Luftwaffe.  Nubian was among those ships damaged beyond  local repair capabilities and withdrawn from the theatre.

            While still a Lieutenant, Bush was placed in command of the Hunt class destroyer Belvoir  and was awarded a third DSC for his  part in the Aegean campaign which followed upon the armistice with Italy in September 1943.  Churchill’s strategic vision (and, some might say, his Dardanelles obsession) perceived an opportunity to open up the Aegean and the Black Sea to convoys for Russia, thus easing the difficulties of supply round the North Cape, by  a  quick investiture of those Greek islands previously held by Italian garrisons.   There was an unhappy failure to take the regional lynchpin, Rhodes, and the subsequent capture of the islands of Cos, Leros and Samos and the  support of the Allied garrisons  thereon proved costly and ineffective.  Vice-Admiral (afterwards Sir Algernon) Willis, in the temporary post of Commander-in-Chief, Levant, records that the overwhelming German air superiority was the deciding factor in a grim and close struggle.  Belvoir acquitted herself with distinction, briskly ferrying troops, conducting shore bombardments and attacking Axis coastal shipping , mainly at night  and under constant threat of air attack.   On one occasion she was hit by a bomb from a Stuka which fortunately failed to explode; this was lifted overboard by the strongest man in the ship’s company who earned himself a medal thereby.

            Promoted Lieutenant Commander  in April 1944, he  subsequently commanded the destroyers Zephyr  and Chevron in the Mediterranean and the Far East, being mentioned in despatches for his part in escorting Mediterranean convoys.

            His was an early selection to Commander  and his post-war career alternated  a number of rewarding sea-going and shore-based appointments .  He commanded the destroyer Cadiz  and later, as a Captain, the 6th Frigate Squadron while his experience and competence in the higher management of defence was shaped by  tours in support of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and, from 1959 to 1961, Director of the  Naval Plans Division in the Admiralty, the premier Captain’s post within the naval staff.

            As a Rear Admiral he oversaw the operational efficiency of the Mediterranean escort flotillas  until January 1963 when he became the commander of the British Naval Staff in Washington,  being promoted Vice Admiral in  November that year.  The permanent  military  staffs in Washington have always been an important expression of the “special relationship”.   In Bush’s time Prime Minister Wilson’s significant visit to President Johnson at the end of 1964 produced a reaffirmation of the United States’ support for their British ally’s East of Suez activities in the context of a Pacific foreign policy that was at that time evolving rapidly on its path from 19th century clipper ship to 20th century helicopter gunship.

            Bush returned to the Ministry of Defence to become the Vice-Chief of Naval Staff, participating in the bruising arguments which finally led to the extended two-volume Defence White Paper which was published on February 22, 1966, and which signalled the demise of the large fixed-wing aircraft carrier from the Royal Navy.  It was this White Paper which stated, “Britain will not undertake major operations of war except in cooperation with allies”.

            Promoted Admiral, Bush  was appointed to the newly described post of Commander in Chief Western Fleet in October 1967, this title  reflecting the run-down of the Mediterranean station and the establishment of the control of all western hemisphere naval forces from a headquarters at Northwood, Middlesex, under an admiral who would also be a major NATO commander with responsibilities for the vital Channel and eastern Atlantic reinforcement routes.

            Retiring in 1970, he was for three years a director of a Washington based company dealing in international security matters.  He was also a councillor for East Hampshire , the Vice President of the Eighth Army Veterans Association and for many years he took a deep interest in his old school , Clifton College, as a Governor, Chairman and subsequently President of the Council.  His wife Ruth died recently; he is survived by their three sons and two daughters.